Emily Warner

I am an artist and researcher, with a background in visual art. I have a multi-disciplinary practice which I use to explore art and making as an ongoing process in flux, something that temporarily exists as a live experience, an action-based encounter or a conversational situation. Through my work I activate relationships and interactions with people and place, and am interested in the construction of transitional relationships within physical and digital contexts. I respond to multiple points of departure, plotting and documenting my active engagement, via performative-action, photography, and film. Illustrating tensions that exist within the condition of the present, I manipulate material that shifts between evolving states, working with the idea of liminality and transition. Fragility, uncertainty and the spaces in-between are recurring motifs that run throughout my work. Manipulating pre-existing material and records, and re-presenting these with real and imagined narratives; I create arrangements and interpretations that challenge the formation of meaning across correlated spaces. Devising layered scripts, and gestural actions with object and material, I am interested in creating an inventory of possibilities to activate at opportune moments, examining the nature of spontaneity and chance within devised frameworks and durational experiences.

'Untitled'

The work that I propose to develop as part of the programme, picks up on a recurrent theme and material that has manifest across a number of recent projects. It exists at present as a wide and open research enquiry into the nature and existence of WATER. The use of water as material has become a central motif when working in an active, site-specific way, and I am drawn to the collection, distribution and delivery of water in performance – choreographing an instinctive pathway and progression to finding source points and natural flow. I have activated water by floating, collecting, carrying, pouring, submerging, cleaning, funnelling and returning to historic sources; attempting to become part of the water cycle as a body that illustrates the natural tendency of the unruly fluid. My interests in the concept of water relates to a number of enquiries, ranging from ritualistic bathing and cleansing, ecological transformation, survivalist notions, visceral and bodily regurgitations and philosophical connotations such as the Chinese notion of Wu Wei –literally ‘not-doing’, a concept that aligns with natural action and effortless flow. I wish to devote a period of time to researching ways of engaging and activating water as a material, collaborating with the liquid in an intuitive way. In order to fully realise the performative potential of this material I would pursue the following departure points both in and outside of the studio:

Narrative potential – appropriating material for alternative use and function

Ritual and routine – examining both the day-to-day utilisation of water, and the wider cultural connotations (researching wider philosophical schools of thought and religious practice)My live and performative practice is often platformed in public locations, and I would like to continue this approach with the work that develops throughout the research period. I also work regularly with film and digital image, often broadcasting and projecting material as a component of the work. I would also continue to develop the use of technology and networked visibility within this project. At present the outcome of this research is open for interpretation and experimentation, but I anticipate the work will form as a roving performance sited across public locations, incorporating online broadcasting and digital material. As with other work to date, I will develop an overarching narrative and character role, within which I will likely perform acts of functionality and labour.